Carnahan swears off all earmarks

Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan is attempting to position herself to the right of Congressman Roy Blunt on fiscal issues by calling for a ban on all earmarks.

Her move comes one day after House Democrats announced a ban on earmarks for private companies and hours after Republicans countered that proposal with a total moratorium on all targeted spending projects.

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Carnahan, who goes further than both plans and also asserts that she will not accept any earmarks under the current system, becomes the latest in a string of high-profile candidates from both parties who are swearing off the pork barreling practice. “Republicans want to stop the practice of wasteful earmark spending for just a year and the Democrats want to ban only certain kinds of earmarks – I’ve got a better solution: ban them all. This is the problem with Washington and it’s time to get serious about cutting wasteful spending,” Carnahan said in a statement Thursday. Carnahan is following in the footsteps of her state’s junior Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who has become one of the leading voices in the push to curtail the time-honored procedure of inserting pet projects into appropriation bills.

When Carnahan, Missouri’s secretary of state, was asked about the earmark issue last winter, she steered clear of making any promises, saying only that “the process has got to be reformed.”

Her campaign spokesman told POLITICO Thursday she came to this conclusion on her own.

“She believes the current process should be scrapped completely,” said spokesman Linden Zakula. “She makes this decision like she makes all decisions, based on what is good for Missourians. And she believes the earmark process promotes wasteful spending and influence peddling.”

Blunt has defended the process of earmarking, following the lead of retiring Sen. Kit Bond, whose prolific appropriating has delivered millions for Missouri roads, bridges, airports and housing projects. In 2010 alone, Blunt requested $153 million in earmarks, a record Carnahan was eager to take a swipe at.

“Congressman Blunt has long supported the wasteful earmarking process and, during his tenure in Washington, earmarks have increased seven-fold from just 1,596 earmarks in 1997 to nearly 12,000 in 2008 and costing taxpayers over $228 billion. It is time for Washington politicians like Congressman Blunt to put fiscal responsibility before their pet projects,” said Carnahan.

But Bond hit back, saying that Carnahan’s move would help give Obama administration bureaucrats more control over purse strings.